‘The Great White Bard’ and ‘Shakespeare Without a Life’ review
Two significant new publications push the parameters of how we engage with the most revered writer in the English language.
Reviews
‘The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover’ by Lerone A. Martin review
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, thought the Bureau’s mission was to defeat the godless forces of liberalism, feminism and civil rights.
‘The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Volume I’, ‘II’ and ‘III’ review
From backbench MP and minor gentleman to Lord Protector and almost-king, a new edition provides the most complete and accurate version of Oliver Cromwell’s writings to date.
‘The Penguin History of Modern Spain’ by Nigel Townson review
An up-to-date history of modern Spain, from 1898 to the present.
‘The Madman in the White House’ by Patrick Weil review
Delusions of grandeur: a ‘psychobiography’ of Woodrow Wilson.
‘Never Again’ by Andrew I. Port review
‘Real world’ German responses to postwar genocide.
‘February 1933’ by Uwe Wittstock review
Germany in February 1933 as it unfolded day-by-day.
‘Virtuous Bankers’ by Anne L. Murphy review
‘A day in the life’ of the 18th-century Bank of England.
‘Revolutionary Spring’ by Christopher Clark review
In January 1848, in the Sicilian city of Palermo, the streets began to fill with crowds. From here, revolutionary sparks flew to almost all of Europe’s cities.
‘Humanly Possible’ by Sarah Bakewell review
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope is a Whiggish history of humanism from the Renaissance to the present.